How Long will Social Security Last?

In 1935, after bank failures and a stock market crash had wiped out the savings of millions of Americans, the country turned to Washington to guarantee the nation’s elderly a decent income. The solution was Social Security.

More than seven decades later, with the gigantic Baby Boom generation now reaching retirement age, Social Security faces a funding crisis. Now more money is going out to Social Security recipients than is coming in from workers’ payroll taxes. The system’s trust fund can cover the difference for a while, but by about 2032 the trust fund will be empty and the program will no longer be able to meet all its obligations.

So what is to be done about it? The problem is starring Washington in the face, but no one is doing anything about it. There have been proposals, but no action as of yet. Some of these proposals are increasing taxes, increasing the retirement age over time, or privatising the program.

In my view increasing taxes is not the answer. We are already taxed enough. It takes almost half of the year to pay all of the taxes individuals have to pay already. This includes everything from gas taxes, property taxes, state taxes, etc.. So that option is out.

Privatising doesn’t seem like a good option to me either. Look at what is happening in the stock market right now. If the Social Security fund had been invested there it (we) would have lost a lot of money and could still lose a lot more before it’s over.

So that leaves increasing the retirement age. To me this seems the most logical. People are living longer than they did in the 1930s and working longer for the most part then they did back then. A gradual increase in retirement age over a few years makes sence to me, but I don’t think that would solve the whole problem. Too many other benefits have been added to Social Security that weren’t there in the first place like Social Security Disability and survivor benefits to children and spouses. I’m not saying we should discontinue these programs necessarily, but we could tighten them up a lot, I’m sure. It’s a proven fact that the more benefits a person can apply for, the more fraudulent claims will come from it.

The bottom line is something has to be done soon. My problem with doing anything now is I don’t want Obama involved in anything of lasting consequence. He is a liar and I don’t trust him and he has done enough damage to the country already, so I hope and pray we will elect congressmen, senators, and a president with integrity who we can trust to do what is right and fix the Social Security system before it’s too late. I didn’t even go into the fact that Social Security was supposed to be a trust and of course that isn’t true. We should look at that too.

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About Kathy

I am semi retired and had lots of free time on my hands. I still work part time as a bookkeeper at the little hardware store in our small town but I still had free time to fill so I became a blogger here at The Harley Factor.
I also am a compulsive beader so I started a beading blog to show off my bead work call Compulsive Beading.
As I have gotten older and mostly wiser I have become very opinionated on a lot of subjects and will share them with you from time to time when I can't keep my mouth shut.
Kathy Sinclair

I am a Boomer and I took mine early, but I want it to last and I want others who are entitled to it to get it. I don’t know how far away from SS age you are, but I hope something is done about it while it can still be salvaged. Right now I am thankful for a grid-locked congress. That way it’s less likely that something terrible will get done, but when Obama is gone I hope we have the right people in there to get the job done.